Lady s hooped skirt



UNITED STATES PATENT OFEIC.

JNO. HOLMES, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

LADYS HOOPED SKIRT.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 22,426, dated December 28, 1858.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, JOHN HOLMES, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State ofV Massachusetts, have .invented a new and useful Improvement in Ladies Hooped Skirts; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, said drawing representing a side view of a skirt constructed according to my invention.

My invention consists in a circular network of cords or twine, of a smiliar structure to the nets used for fishing, but so formed that when hoops are passed 'through its meshes, the entire fullness of the skirt will be thrownin one direction in such a manner as to give it the bishop or bustle shape, and so that the skirt so formed will be selfsustaining, which enables me to retain the fullness in one direction and support the bishop or bustle shape from the top to the eXtreme bottom of the skirt, regardless of the weight of the dress upon it, and thus dispensing with all clasps, sewing, lacings, eXtra bustles, &c., which are now used to accomplish the same purpose.

A, A, and A, are the hoops; O, is the waistband; and B, is the circular network by which the hoops are connectedtogether and suspended from the waistband, and sustained in proper form and relative position by each being merely passed through one course of meshes before its ends are joined. The hoops keep the network distended circumferentially and hence the hoops and network are'mut-ually sustaining. The network is made in the desired form of the skirt by making the meshes of the lower part of uniform size and making the same number in the successive circular courses. but a properly graduated reduction is made upward .in the upper part of the back to give it a vertically rounded form from the waistband as far down as desired, either by netting together the adjacent loops of one course in the course above, or by reducing the size of the meshes as they approach the band. The former method of reduction is exhibited in the course through which the hook A is represented as passing, and the latter' method in the courses above. As there is no reduction in the front part, all the fullness produced by the above described reduction is thrown into the back, and the front half of the skirt hangs almost straight as represented in the drawing. The upper portion of the front requires to be open to allow the skirt to be put on; and I consider it better not to continue the netting of the upper part completely around to the front, but to complete the front at the sides of the opening with linen cloth, muslin or other woven fabric D, which is strong enough to bear the attachment of suitable fastenings and less liable to be disarranged than the edges of the netting would be.

lhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is :M

The network fabric herein described, having the number or size of its meshes reduced toward the top in such a manner as to throw the fullness in one direction or on one side, so that when the hoops are inserted, it is self-sustaining to produce the bishop or bustl-e form and preserve that form to the bottom of the skirt, as herein set forth without the use of lacings, springs, extra bustles, or other contrivances.

JOHN HOLMES. lVitnesses S. L. VAKEFIELD, GUILroRD IVHITE. 

